According to extensive notes about Long John Baldry's career in the re-release 2005 CD, Rod Stewart was brought on board to produce It Ain't Easy for Warner Brothers.

Soon after in 1970, Stewart met Baldry’s former Bluesology bandmate Elton John at a party and the piano player joined on, too.

The Baldry album features his biggest U.S. hit, "Don't Try to Lay No Boogie-Woogie on the King of Rock and Roll"; Baldry once noted how Stewart's loose and late-night recording sessions affected the tracks, "especially those recorded on my thirtieth birthday when he showed up with cases of Remy Martin cognac and several measures of good quality champagne!"

[4] The 1971 release also features "Black Girl", an American folk song most associated with Lead Belly, though covered by the likes of Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Dolly Parton and Nirvana.

[5] Baldry and Stewart put a band together to promote the album on Baldry's first tour of the US, consisting of mostly musicians from Stewart's Every Picture Tells a Story album: Sam Mitchell (blues guitar), Micky Waller (drums), Pete Sears (bass) and Ian Armit (piano).